Li was born in Wuchang, Heilongjiang, China. She had no intention of becoming an actress initially and she enrolled specifically in a high school for prospective school teachers. However, upon graduation, she discovered her interest in acting and was eventually persuaded by a friend to join the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 1993.

Li rose to fame after starring in Zhang Yuan's Seventeen Years (1999), which won her the Best Actress Award in the 1999 Singapore Film Festival.[1] In 2001, Li starred in the television series Young Justice Bao, which propelled her to become one of the most famous actresses in China.

Li was subsequently labelled as an "action actress" as she starred in a number of wuxia television series, such as Taiji Prodigy and Eight Heroes.

In 2013, Li attended the 4th Annual US-China Film Summit and received the East-West Talent Award.[14][15] Hollywood magazine Variety also named her Asian Star of the Year.[16] The following year, Li featured in Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth installment of the film franchise.[17] This helped solidify her success overseas.[18]

Li has established L.O.V.E, a charitable organization dedicated to the promotion of a positive, environmentally responsible lifestyle. She is also one of the founders of the two-year One Million-Tree Forest project, launched in efforts to change the climate environment and help local residents of Gansu Province, Southwest China, to increase their incomes.[25] Her commitment to green and charitable causes has earned her the recognition as “the most influential global ambassador” from World Wildlife Fund.[26]

Li did not appear at the premiere of Resident Evil: Retribution, raising speculation from reporters that her absence was a demonstration against the escalating dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu Islands. Li's agent Ji Xiang explained that Li had been informed of the premiere two months before but she was too busy in Beijing to attend at that time. However, Ji did not deny that politics were involved, saying: "We are in line with our government – the Diaoyu Islands belong to China. Bingbing will be attending movie premieres held in other places across the world and she skipped the Tokyo leg only."[27]

On July 24, 2013, it was reported that Li has a godfather named Wang Lin,[28] a qigong practitioner who claims to be able to conjure up snakes from thin air, cure disease, and retrieve an incinerated banknote intact from an orange.[29]The Beijing News reported that Li Xue, Li's agent, responded that Li went to visit Wang Lin to ask him to cure her mother of her disease. As for the effectiveness of the cure, the agent refused to disclose any more information.[28]